See what else is happening in film & TV industries around the world.
A new adaptation of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ will be released in September. Relativity Media have acquired the U.S. rights to a new adaptation of the William Shakespeare classic ‘Romeo & Juliet’. They will distribute the latest adaptation, which stars starring Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and Douglas Booth. ‘Downton Abbey’ creator and ‘Gosford Park’ writer Julian Fellowes adapted the script for the project, which is directed by Carlo Carlei, an Italian director perhaps best known for the 1992 Italian film ‘Flight of the Innocent’. Steinfeld, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role in True Grit, plays Juliet, while Booth, who starred in ‘L.O.L’ and the television mini-series ‘Great Expectations’ will take on the role of Romeo. Steinfeld and Booth will star alongside Oscar nominated Paul Giamatti, Stellan Skarsgard, Homeland's Damian Lewis, The Truman Show’s Natasha McElhone, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, star of the 2009 film ‘The Road’. The film is a co-production of Amber Entertainment, Swarovski Entertainment and Echo Lake Entertainment. Fellowes is producing along with Ileen Maisel, Lawrence Elman, Nadja Swarovski, Simon Bosanquet, Alexander Koll, Dimitra Tsingou, Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding. The project is being billed as a reworking of the universal classic, which centres on the forbidden love between two young lovers, for the 21st century. A UK, Italian, and Swiss co-production, the film was shot in Italy early last year and the first footage was shown during the Cannes Film Festival in May 2012. Relativity is planning a limited release on Sept. 6, 2013.
Joss Whedon’s ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ breaks box-office records Sticking with adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, Joss Whedon’s recent adaptation of ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ has broken box office-records. According to The Wrap, despite opening in only five theatres in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, the black-and-white adaptation took in an impressive $183,400, which breaks down to $36,680 per-screen average. Truly a force to be reckoned with at the box-office, Joss Whedon broke numerous box-office records with the release of the Superhero film ‘The Avengers’ in 2012, including the biggest opening weekend in North America and the fastest film to gross $1 billion at the box-office. But the follow-up to the epic blockbuster is truly its polar opposite. Made up of a cast of Whedon’s longtime friends and collaborators, the film was shot in just 12 days in Whedon’s home and is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's classic comedy about two pairs of lovers with different takes on romance. With this film, Whedon has certainly proven to be an extremely versatile director. He possesses a trait that is rare amongst Hollywood blockbuster directors: the ability to direct both large-scale, big-budget features and low-budget, art-house independent projects. Ever since the film made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, critics have been heaping praise on the film and because Whedon has such a large fanbase, it’s no wonder that the film has been performing so well. ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ will be released in Ireland this Friday.
Watch the trailer for ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for director Peter Jackson‘s ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’. The film is a continuation of the story that began with last year’s ‘An Unexpected Journey’, and in the trailer we get a look at the new characters played by Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel), Lee Pace (Thranduil), and Luke Evans (Bard the Bowman), as well as a nice tease of the titular dragon Smaug. The story follows the Dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf after they successfully escaped the Misty Mountains, and Bilbo has gained the One Ring. They all continue their journey to get their gold back from the Dragon, Smaug. The film stars Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, John Bell, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Graham McTavish, Michael Mizrahi, Dean O’Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Ken Stott, and Irish actors James Nesbitt and Aidan Turner, and will be released in Ireland on December 13th.
